Disaster dog: Rescue comes full circle

Four years ago, Rayanne Chamberlain opened her heart and her home to a Doberman pinscher named Bristol. Now the dog that Chamberlain rescued could pay it forward by doing some rescuing herself.

Bristol, who has been training with Chamberlain to do search and rescue, was certified last month as a Level 1 FEMA urban disaster dog, and is a member of Ohio Task Force 1. To pass the test, Bristol had to find up to six living victims in 10,000 square feet of rubble in 40 minutes. An urban disaster dog must ignore the dead and find the victims who are still alive, giving a bark indication, and staying at the scene where the scent is strongest, until the handler arrives.

Dogs work "completely naked," Chamberlain said, without collars or boots.

"They just search, climb over and under things, tunnel though," she said. "Wherever the scent is available, they go."

As a FEMA-certified disaster dog team, Bristol and Chamberlain are deployable anywhere in the United States, and internationally if need be. The pair are also members of Michigan Search and Rescue, a Muir-based organization whose dog-and-handler teams volunteer to look for missing people, alive and dead.

In addition, Chamberlain is a first responder with the Lyons-Muir Fire Department, and Bristol is available to assist that department as well.

Chamberlain has been involved in search and rescue work with dogs for 15 years. When she lost her previous dog from complications after a surgery, she considered getting a puppy. Then she found Bristol on the website of a Missouri Doberman rescue, which took her from a humane society that couldn't place her because "she was way too much dog," Chamberlain said.

"Too much energy, too busy, a really confident dog – those are personality traits that don't do well in a pet-only home. Most search and rescue dogs wouldn't," she said. "They are our pets, but they also get the mental and physical challenge and are kept busy."

When Bristol is not working, she likes to swim and play fetch, and she loves to sleep on the couch.

"(But) if she had to lay on the couch for two to three days straight, she would be driving me crazy. They want to do work," said Chamberlain. "Bristol was a little more of challenge than a puppy, but it turned out she loves the work and enjoys the heck out of it."

Bristol's energy level and self-confidence made her well-suited for search and rescue. The dogs have to be confident, agile and have a level of independence, because they are sent in ahead of their handlers when a search for victims begins.

"They have to be willing to walk up ladders and across 8-foot planks in the air without a second thought. The dog has to be comfortable in all situations, even those that are not comfortable for us," said Chamberlain. "Bristol will take a huge rubble pile and be able to tell me in 10 minutes if there is a person trapped. It could take hours or days for technology or a human searcher to tell if anyone is in there."

Disaster work is a partnership effort, and there were times when Chamberlain and Bristol "had issues with getting that partnership going.

"That mostly lands on the handler, who has to be able to work with the dog's personality and quirks. There have been some situations where I was not the partner for her," Chamberlain said. "Being a busy dog, she was of the opinion that anything she would do was just fine. It made it more difficult to train her, because she was so opinionated about how much she could decide, and how much I could. We finally found the perfect balance."

Independence is a good thing for a search and rescue dog, to a point. The dogs are essentially in charge during the search. The handlers are given an area, but the dog drives the search, because "they're the ones with the noses," Chamberlain said.

But there is a tension between the dog making decisions, its safety and its responsiveness to its handler. A dog on a scent is totally focused. If the handler is told that the area is unsafe and to leave immediately, the dog must be willing to leave the scent and return to its handler.

"It's a delicate balance. Sometimes either the dog is too full of itself or the handler over-controls," Chamberlain said. "It's been a hard road to find our place, but I'm really excited, because we finally have found it."

Chamberlain said she gives kudos to the Doberman rescue that held on to Bristol until the right owner came along, even though six other people were interested in her.

"They knew she would end up back with them or euthanized, because she was too busy," she said. "They also went out on limb, because most rescues don't adopt a couple of hundred miles from the rescue."

Chamberlain noted that, since Bristol came from a rescue in St. Louis, and they passed the FEMA test in Columbia, Mo., they have come full circle. Theirs has been quite a journey. What she is proudest of, though, is that Bristol, her FEMA-certified dog, is a rescue.

"She's a rescue dog who is now in the position to possibly rescue people," she said. "You can get a rescue to do anything – therapy, agility, or if you want to compete. You don't have to go and get a puppy. You can go to a shelter and find these dogs."

For more information about the Michigan Search and Rescue program, visit www.michigansar.org.

Follow Karen Bota on Twitter @KarenB_ISS.

Rayanne Chamberlain of Lyons and her dog, Bristol, are members of FEMA's Ohio Task Force 1. They are certified to do search and rescue of live victims for FEMA. COURTESY PHOTO

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